Hypertension affects over 50 million people in the United States and is disturbingly higher in African Americans than in white Americans. Evidence suggests that a genetic predisposition to hypertension may underlie this health disparity. Studies suggest that hypertensive humans and animal models of hypertension exhibit increased peripheral sympathetic nervous system activity (SNA) but the knowledge of the events that lead to elevated SNA and its significance in the genesis and maintenance of elevated blood pressure is rudimentary.